xp_logs | Kevin & Amara | Tuesday morning

Kevin gets up early still feeling a bit "distracted" and is found by Amara on their way out to go running. Flirting ensues until the fresh air finally gets the pheromones in the mansion off them and they can think straight again.

Amara was restless this morning, and she couldn't quite put her finger on why. It was what had propelled her out of bed slightly earlier than usual this morning, and into her exercise gear. It was - well, she wasn't sure what it was, an itch under her skin that she couldn't figure out.

Then she was out her door, and after a few steps down the hallway she realised she wasn't the only one up early this morning. Even from behind she recognised Kevin, the broad shoulders something of a give away.

"Morning Kevin," she said in a low voice, not wanting to startle him, even at a distance. It came out a little more sultry than she'd intended, and the itching under her skin just got worse now that she was out of the room. What was wrong with her this morning? Was she getting sick again?

Kevin had an...eventful night. A very unanticipatedly eventful night. Jan was...distracting. She managed that a lot lately. But last night...

He pushed the thoughts away. Kevin had woken up with the worst case of morning wood in the history of forever and he did not want to tempt that back into being. And then there was the voice from behind him. A very low voice that made him think of bedrooms rather than hallways. First there was Jan, then there were the most explicitly sexual dreams he'd ever had and now there was that voice. He actually took the time to adjust himself so that the waistband of his boxers would hold him in place because his track pants? They weren't great at leaving things to the imagination and he hadn't anticipated anyone being awake and up this early.
By the time he turned to smile at the voice behind him Kevin looked mostly okay, but also a little distracted. And then he realized it was Amara. Who was hot. Why were there no ugly girls who lived here? "Hey, Amara. You're up early." He tried for casual but his voice didn't quite get there. Kevin was going to blame Jan. He was still turned on from last night, that had to be it. And it was distracting. And now his brain was pulling Amara into it which was all bad because she was really nice and a friend and...really hot. Damn it.

Amara blushed a little, for no reason she could fathom, other than feeling oddly warmer than usual. Maybe her fever was coming back. She should probably go and see one of the doctors if that was the case. But she didn't feel sick so much as.. on edge. Restless. Wanting something, even if she couldn't quite put her finger on what it was.

"I couldn't stay asleep," she admitted, voice still low and quiet. "And my alarm would be going off sooner rather than later, so I thought I might as well get up." Her lips curved into a smile, her head tilting slightly. "Though if I knew the company I'd find at this hour, I'd make more of an effort to get up this early."

If he were someone else he might have actually blushed, but instead he simply slowed his steps until Amara caught up to him and quirked a lopsided smirk in her direction. The expression came off much more flirtatious and smug than he'd intended. "Maybe Ah should just start getting up later," he offered, his voice lower than usual thanks to the amount of distraction going on in his head.

"But then everyone else would be around," Amara countered, the smile still playing on her lips. "And that defeats the purpose of catching you alone." Amara wasn't sure what had gotten into her - being a little flirtatious was one thing, but she definitely was never usually this forward.

An eyebrow quirked upward, a bit of a smirk coming back onto his lips. "Well, if Ah knew you wanted me all to yourself..." He bowed his head to her a bit. "Ah'd be more'n happy to accommodate you." Two girls and one man are enough to juggle, he told himself. But he just couldn't help it. She was smiling and she had that low, bedroom voice thing going on. Kevin couldn't get images of her stripping off sweaty clothes and stepping into the shower out of his head. He was so going to hell.

"Really now?" She asked playfully, biting her lower lip and glancing down. And what about John?, a little voice in her head asked, her gaze then faltering as she realized what she was staring at, and the... state Kevin was in. That just made her blush all the more, her gaze quickly moving to the floor.

He noticed the blush, then tracked along where her gaze had gone and...wow. That was inconvenient. Granted, not that obvious all things considered, but the track pants just weren't great at hiding anything. He refused to be apologetic that she was hot and flirting with him and he was a guy. Not to mention that she had to be looking at his crotch to notice anything in the first place. Note to self: Find longer shirts to wear for morning work outs. This would have been an awesome time for a really slick comment. Really it would be. "If you're gonna notice enough to blush, then you should at least be proud that it's your fault," he told her in a very soft tone that was half flirt and half trying to diffuse what he assumed was embarrassment on her end.

Not necessarily embarrassment, just being very much unused to situations like this. She glanced up again, a bit of a grin on her face through the blushing.

"My fault, is it? Perhaps I should leave you to yourself then, so I don't continue to provoke such a response."

A hand came up to rest over his heart as Kevin's jaw fell. He had his most wounded look on his face. "You'd leave me? The sorry state Ah'm in, all due to you, and you'd just abandon me? Ah promise that Ah won't give into any of my animal urges unless you want me to," he told her with utter sincerity in his voice and on his face. He was really close to cracking a smile, but for now Kevin was managing to keep his face straight.

Amara just laughed at that, shaking her head. "Well, I suppose if you can keep those urges to yourself, I never do complain about having a work out partner. If you think you can keep up." A somewhat wicked grin followed up her words, the flirt returning despite herself.

"Now, ma'am, is that a challenge Ah hear?" He played up the accent, which wasn't hard to do this early in the morning at all. He certainly sounded a lot more like he was from Brooks than Atlanta currently. "Ah don't like to disrespect ladies, but Ah think you'll find Ah can keep up just fine unless you've got some augmented speed abilities you haven't been tellin' me 'bout." God knows he needed the distraction from his mental images. Mm...and from her smile. Running and working out would help. He could redirect all that lust into something far more productive. Hopefully.

"It just might be," Amara replied, still grinning. "And as plentiful as my powers might be, speed was not included, sadly enough. So we'll just have to see how you go."

With a wink, Amara took off, running lightly towards the stairs. She didn't want to wake anyone up, but there was only so long her restlessness would let her stand around talking.

Feisty, I like that in a girl, Kevin thought as he watched her take off. He wasn't really interested in Amara beyond friendship, but he felt a healthy appreciation of her wouldn't hurt. He jogged after her to keep his steps light enough to be quiet. He didn't have much of a height advantage on her but being a guy his legs were longer and that lengthened stride let him catch up to her easily. "Ah like competitive in a girl," he told her when he caught up to her as they sprinted down the stairs. "But cheatin'll get you nowhere."

"Cheating? Me?" She laughed at the thought, jumping down the last few steps in an attempt to regain her lead. "Now, if I was going cheat," she called back with a grin as she headed for the front door. "I'd do something like leave my shirt behind. Or perhaps offer to let you kiss..." There was an intentional pause as Amara grinned. "My cheek again. But I wouldn't do such things."

In truth, she wouldn't. Amara had more than a little modesty, and while the sports bra she was wearing covered more than her bikini did, it was the principle of the matter. And she hadn't minded Kevin kissing her that one time, John was the only person she was interested in kissing right now.

But teasing Kevin? She had to admit, it was a lot of fun.

"Ah can get you to kiss me again anyway," he told her with the sort of casual arrogance only a guy his age could pull off so well. He caught up to her again at the door because Amara was forced to stop long enough to pull it open where as he just had to follow her out. He grinned at her and stretched out his stride once they were down the steps and onto the paved path out front. "Besides, leavin' your shirt won't do anythin' but keep me a couple steps behind you until right before the end." He was grinning over at her. "But I promise to be real respectful while enjoyin' the view. Actually..." he tilted his head to the side and let her run out in front of him so he could appreciate the view. It was a nice view even with the shirt on. Kevin caught back up and playfully added, "Ah might have to fall back on purpose."

Kevin was being playful enough that he didn't think he was in any danger of crossing any lines. Amara was an exceptionally attractive girl, she had to know that. The fact that someone might stare at her ass couldn't possibly be news to her.

It was true, Amara was aware of the effect she had on, well. Any one in the population with an appreciation for pretty blonde girls. She was usually fairly dismissive of the people who did comment on her anatomy, mostly because they were fairly crude about it. But she had started it, with her comment about her shirt, and she did both like and trust Kevin enough that she took his comments as the compliments they were.

"See now, that's not fair. If you're running behind me on purpose, what view am I supposed to enjoy?" Tit for tat, Kevin, and he certainly wasn't hard on the eyes.

"And you're very confident about your ability to get me to kiss you again. There were circumstances involved last time." Not that she could remember them at present.

Her replies only made him grin more, though the expression took on a decidedly cheeky quality to it. "You really think Ah've got no grounds for my confidence? Ah couldn't create circumstances again? Or convince you that you want to?" He managed to keep the smugness to a minimum, but it didn't stop him from sounding entirely sure of himself. Truth be told, he wasn't sure he could get her to kiss him again. But that wasn't something he was going to let on about.

"If you really want a view you're welcome to come shower with me after," he told her, laughter edging into his voice and veering the offer away from sounding anything like a serious one.

"The last time you kissed me, you snuck it in," she countered with a grin. "And I've only ever let one - no, sorry, two other guys kiss me. I hope you're prepared to work hard for my kiss, sir." Amara didn't doubt his ability to wrangle another kiss out of her, to be honest, but whether he actually tried? That was another story.

"Oh no, no showers. My hair is not fit for viewing after I've been anywhere near water. I wouldn't want to give you a heart attack." Amara's hair, in it's natural state, was very curly, and it took more time than she really had to wrestle it into it's usual straightness, but she took the time anyway.

"Who said anythin' 'bout after the shower?" Beaming at her, Kevin took off in a sprint. If they were capable of carrying on this much conversation then they definitely weren't working hard enough to push each other. Besides, he had images of Amara in the shower now. And this time they involved her being in it with him. Yep, he had more energy to burn off.

Amara didn't have such images - her imagination wasn't quite as developed as Kevin's, but she certainly was blushing a lot by this point, and it took her a few moments to get unflustered before she pushed herself to catch up with him again. She didn't usually like cold showers, but she felt like she might need one after this.

Kevin had led them away from the paved path near the mansion and off toward the lake and into the woods. He liked the change of scenery and the challenge of the shifting terrain. It was probably a terrible idea with them racing since there was so much underfoot that could shift and cause one of them to twist, sprain or even break an ankle. But Kevin was young and invincible, or as invincible as young men his age tended to be anyhow. The push to make his stride longer and faster helped clear his head quite a bit, thankfully. Maybe he'd just needed something new to focus on to distract him. That and he had needed Amara to not be quite as distracting a presence and though she'd caught back up, his mind had mellowed out and focused on the run instead of her by time she had.

The run in silence did a lot for Amara's equilibrium - both the physical exertion and lack of banter calmed her down a lot. The restlessness she'd been feeling had settled down a little, and the blushing had faded.

"Do you go running often?" She asked quietly, in between breaths.

It was too bad about the blushing, really. Kevin was a fan of the blushing. "Two or three times a week?" He shrugged as little as they ran, matching her stride step for step but not trying to pull ahead of her. Kevin wasn't really all that competitive and he saw more benefit in the companionship of running side by side than he did in racing.

"Really?" Amara sounded a little surprised. "Surprised I don't see you out here more often." There was a pause while she caught her breath a little. "Guess that's what I get for being so busy."

"Ah'm real undercover about it," Kevin joked a little. They go back up to the mansion, though Kevin had aimed for the entrance that led to the kitchen rather than the front door they had left from. Water was important. And also fruit. "See, and if you were less busy you could be out here with me. At the crack of dawn. Real tempting, ain't it?"

"Other than the hour, certainly," Amara replied with a smile. "I'm not usually in bed before midnight, and I am actually fairly fond of sleep. Even if I don't get nearly enough of it." Amara followed his lead, mostly forgetting about the challenge she'd issued earlier. The run had been nice in and of itself.

Kevin stopped outside the door so he could stretch before going into the warmer air inside. "Ever think if you got up earlier you'd go to bed earlier and then you'd get more done in the mornin' before folks are up and awake and able to distract you?" A small grin started to form on Kevin's face. "Except me. Ah'll still be 'round to distract you."

"Oh, I know I would," she laughed. "Well, maybe not if you were around to distract me. But there's always so much to do - either I've been at HeliX things, or Elpis, or out with friends, and then there's homework and studying to do as well. And I have to keep up my workouts as well, and..." She trailed off, shrugging. "There just aren't enough hours in the day."

"So no sleep. Hey, everyone's got priorities. Ah don't share yours but Ah respect 'em." Of course, that respect was a questionable thing considering the teasing tone in his voice when he said it. Seriously, Kevin thought sleep was way more important. Then again, he had sacrificed a lot of sleep when he was dating Jean-Paul whose sleep habits were both dangerous and erratic.

"... I catch up on the weekends. Most of the time." She looked a little sheepish about it. "I know it's not ideal, but..." She shrugged. "There's just so much I want to do. And I don't want to let my grades drop, I'd like to go onto graduate school and the better my grades are, the more chance I'll have in getting a place."

"You say that a lot," he pointed out. This was at least the second time she'd aired her defense to him. Kevin figured she was so busy that obviously her memory had holes in it because who could keep track of all that? "If you gotta defend it that often then you're doin' somethin' wrong." He was mostly kidding. Mostly. Kevin opened the door to the kitchen once he was finished stretching and gestured for Amara to enter ahead of him.

"I may have been accused of being an overachiever more than once," Amara admittedly sheepishly. "But I started college so late compared to everyone else, and there are still things I struggle with, after not growing up in America." There were some things people took for granted as common knowledge, and as much as Amara had worked hard to fill in her gaps, she couldn't find out things she didn't know she didn't know.

Kevin waved a hand dismissively. "Just play the exotic card. You've got the accent, just play it up and be all 'Ah didn't grow up here' and people'll forgive most stuff. You speak English so you're automatically the acceptable version of foreigner."

"That works in social situations," Amara said with a laugh. "Not so much in class discussions. It's a little difficult to ask someone to stop talking and explain something to you, when everyone else knows what they're talking about. I usually have to head to the library to figure out what they were talking about after classes like that." She grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge, before continuing on through the kitchen. Shower time, then food.

"You can still tell them to stop and explain." Okay, so they might think she was sort of dense for not getting it so Kevin could understand why she wouldn't want to. But she still could. Kevin had an apple in one hand and a banana in the other. Ah, food. Technically he had a girl in his bed who he had promised breakfast to. Or, well, a note he had left her promised breakfast anyway.

"Sadly, there are very few people in this world that are as sweet as you are, Kevin Ford." She smiled winsomely at him. There were only so many times you could ask people to explain themselves before they considered you an idiot, so Amara had just simply given up. "Hopefully I'll catch you again another morning, I enjoyed running with you this morning." Even if neither of them really won their race.

Kevin gave her a wide, beaming smile. "Lookin' forward to you bein' the first thing Ah see in the morning." His smile only grew wider at the double meaning of his words. The Southerner gave her a polite incline of his head as if he really needed to follow up with something more cheesy. Now to see if the girl in his bed had actually woken up yet.